Shelly Tygielski

Shelly Tygielski worked for close to twenty years as a corporate executive before making her lifelong meditation practice the centre of her working life. She has studied in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition and is trained to teach mindfulness. She began by leading a free Sunday-morning meditation on Hollywood Beach in Florida; a small circle of friends grew within two years into a community of thousands known as the Sand Tribe. Her guiding idea is that practice should carry no barrier to entry, and that inner work only finds its purpose when it reaches out into community.

In 2020 she founded Pandemic of Love, a mutual-aid network that connected people in need directly with people able to help, and in 2022 she co-founded the impact film and television company Partners in Kind. She wrote Sit Down to Rise Up, which follows the path from personal practice to collective care, and co-wrote How We Ended Racism with Justin Michael Williams. She holds a doctorate in philanthropic leadership, writes a widely read Substack, shares guided meditations on Insight Timer and gives talks on self-care as something we do together. Her Commune course, The Power of Showing Up, explores how to be present for yourself and for others.